Advice on rejecting second hand car within 6 months

[eleven12]

Hi all

I'll try to keep this brief.

- Bought a second hand car in September - 10 years old, diesel and 100K+ miles (I'm not expecting perfection)
- Car keeps going into limp mode with an engine fault message after random periods of motorway driving. Sometimes after 10 minutes, sometimes after 2 hours.
- Car taken back to dealer who replaced oil pump
- The day after, engine light/limp mode came on twice on the same day with motorway driving
- Dealer says they don't know the problem - because the warning/limp mode resets itself after a period of not driving, dealer says they cannot read any fault codes unless the engine warning is on at the time. Hence they tried the oil pump.

I know I can reject the car within 6 months if I give the dealer a chance to fix the problem and they do not fix it. I feel that I've given them a chance to fix and the fault persists. Can they argue that they haven't been given the chance to fix because they don't know what the problem is (because they can't read the fault code)? Is it true that fault codes aren't stored and are only readable when there is an active fault message?

I actually don't want to reject the car, but if the issue isn't resolved in the next couple of weeks I may have to in order to not lose my 6 month ability to reject. Hence I'm giving the garage a second chance to repair in the hope that they can do it but I'll have very little time after that to have any more opportunities to fix before I go over 6 months.

Any advice on the above would be appreciated.

Thanks

[FlyVintage]

Bot back again I see

[paul_c123]

eleven12 said:

Hi all

I'll try to keep this brief.

- Bought a second hand car in September - 10 years old, diesel and 100K+ miles (I'm not expecting perfection)
- Car keeps going into limp mode with an engine fault message after random periods of motorway driving. Sometimes after 10 minutes, sometimes after 2 hours.
- Car taken back to dealer who replaced oil pump
- The day after, engine light/limp mode came on twice on the same day with motorway driving
- Dealer says they don't know the problem - because the warning/limp mode resets itself after a period of not driving, dealer says they cannot read any fault codes unless the engine warning is on at the time. Hence they tried the oil pump.

I know I can reject the car within 6 months if I give the dealer a chance to fix the problem and they do not fix it. I feel that I've given them a chance to fix and the fault persists. Can they argue that they haven't been given the chance to fix because they don't know what the problem is (because they can't read the fault code)? Is it true that fault codes aren't stored and are only readable when there is an active fault message?

I actually don't want to reject the car, but if the issue isn't resolved in the next couple of weeks I may have to in order to not lose my 6 month ability to reject. Hence I'm giving the garage a second chance to repair in the hope that they can do it but I'll have very little time after that to have any more opportunities to fix before I go over 6 months.

Any advice on the above would be appreciated.

Thanks

This type of issue has been covered many times before - see previous threads and countess other info on the internet. How does your case differ from theirs?

Put simply, >30 days and <6 months, they have the right to repair, once. If that doesn't fix it you have a right to reject the vehicle and receive a refund with appropriate deduction for usage. Unless your T&Cs indicate you need to return it to them, they are obligated to collect it if you wish that. You must stop using it once you have rejected it.

[eleven12]

paul_c123 said:

This type of issue has been covered many times before - see previous threads and countess other info on the internet. How does your case differ from theirs?

Put simply, >30 days and <6 months, they have the right to repair, once. If that doesn't fix it you have a right to reject the vehicle and receive a refund with appropriate deduction for usage. Unless your T&Cs indicate you need to return it to them, they are obligated to collect it if you wish that. You must stop using it once you have rejected it.

Thanks. I know my rights as I say in my OP. My specific questions were around 1) whether what I was told about error codes was true, and 2) if anyone know the technicalities of what constitutes giving them one chance to repair. I get if they know the issue and don't repair it. But if they have told me the don't know what the issue is so are trying a few things.

[eleven12]

FlyVintage said:

Bot back again I see

Another unwelcoming troll I see

[paul_c123]

eleven12 said:

Thanks. I know my rights as I say in my OP. My specific questions were around 1) whether what I was told about error codes was true, and 2) if anyone know the technicalities of what constitutes giving them one chance to repair. I get if they know the issue and don't repair it. But if they have told me the don't know what the issue is so are trying a few things.

It is their job to know the issue. Whether it logs codes or not, is immaterial. There seems to be this myth that everything wrong with a car will log one code in a "module", you plug in a code reader, replace a part, clear the code and its fixed. Most of the time this is untrue and the codes need interpreting; or there are no relevant codes and you need to actually diagnose it properly.